I ran down the hallway and went down the stairs.
I was sure that this is the one that leads to the dining room.
Worrying about that, I pushed my way into a large room.
Fortunately, I was able to spot Lady Demy immediately.
A maid was waiting on her and she was just about to go back to the room.
“Lady Demy!”
I rushed over to her and she looked surprised for a moment, but she soon turned to the maid.
“I’m stumped. This boy becomes like this when I’m not around”
She clouded the issue with fond words.
“Y, you really get along with each other”
“I’ll leave that to your imagination. He’s already here now so you may go”
“Yes. Please excuse me”
The maid gave a bow and went back where she came.
“….. Yuuki-san. Did something happen?”
She said, returning to her Princess Rosé face.
She seems to notice something’s amiss from the way I looked.
Good, she’s normal for now.
Doesn’t look like they did anything to her….
“Let’s get back to the room and I’ll talk”
——…….
Once we’re back in the room, Arina was still appraising the monster, and Mist was sitting on the bed near the other two, looking worried.
“Ah, Yuu-kun, welcome back!”
“I’m glad. Ojousama is fine too, right”
Arina and Mist stood up to greet us.
“This….. what happened here?”
Borrowed as it is, Lady Demy was wide-eyed in surprise seeing her room full of people.
“Sorry for the ruckus. I’ll explain”
Blah blah yadda yadda.
I told her what happened until now.
Lady Demy scowled on the part about the bath, but she shuddered hearing what happened afterwards and made a dark expression.
“….. they were developing such a terrifying monster as that in this residence…”
“Yes. While we haven’t examined the matter about the spies, it turned into something big. …. Arina. Did you find out something about this?”
“Umm, yes. …. I don’t really know much, but there’s one thing I can say for sure”
Arina took a flower with a strong stem from a vase, poked the slug and said.
“This thing, only works on girls”
“Huuuh!? It’s really an ero-monster!?”
“Yes, but not like that, strictly speaking. Magic cores have something like wavelengths that depend on the owner’s gender and age. This thing was adjusted to match the wavelength of girls around the age of Arina or Lady Demy”
“I see….. ……. ……”
“So it’s really an ero-monster isn’t it!!”
“Yes, it’s an ero-tentacle-monster!!”
“What the h.e.l.l, stop that”
Without an outlet, I launched a retort, but…
“…….. No, wait”
I stopped myself.
There’s something stuck in my mind.
“Lady Demy. You said this residence doesn’t have gardeners, didn’t you. Mist, is that true?”
“Eh? Yeah, this residence doesn’t employ gardeners. We do almost everything, we only call in outside help sometimes”
“Gardeners are usually male, aren’t they?”
Mist thought about it, and nodded in affirmation.
“Now that you mention it”
Arina muttered.
“There are no men in the kitchens. Also, there are no old maids. Right, Mist-san?”
“Eh, yeah…. that’s right”
Which means this residence….
“To begin with, why did Tris first send the guard knights away….?”
“So that was really…”
Now it was Lady Demy talking.
“Because they can seal mine and Arina’s mouths with the magic core parasite, isn’t it? They won’t have a problem even if the monsters and the rebellion plan is found out. As for Yuuki-san…. um…”
They can kill me, right?
It was obviously clear which one is easier to manage between knights attached to an organization and someone with no clear origins like me.
I see, it all makes sense.
But.
…. Is that really true….
“No, that’s wrong. Didn’t Lady Demy say this in the coach?”
[If they knew I’ll be coming, anyone would hide the evidence]
“It’s weirder that they don’t hide evidence when there’s a visitor coming, right? They’ll get suspected if they deliberately turn her away”
Mind control monsters that only work on girls.
The parasites’ targets in the residence and the fact that there’s n.o.body other than trusted people.
And Lady Demy coming into the middle of all this.
—which means, this is.
“Yuu-kun…”
Arina said with a worried face.
“T, this might be because Arina is…. an idiot, but…. It feels like Yuu-kun is going to say something scary”
“I… think so too”
Please let this be the idiot’s delusion.
If this is true, then we have ‘lost’ from the beginning.
But looking at the situation up to now, I can’t think of anything other than this….
My anxiety caught Princess and Mist’s attention.
“Princess Rosé”
“Yes. Wait…. YUUKI-SAN!”
Princess panicked because I said it clearly in front of Mist, but that doesn’t matter now.
“Please listen closely. The person these parasites are made for, is probably Princess Rosé—you yourself”
“Eh….”
Princess Rosé was caught off guard.
“This parasite was made in order to manipulate princess Rosé, and you nonchalantly came here to get this parasite implanted in you”
“Please wait just a moment!”
Princess Rosé raised her voice in objection.
“I, um, Rosé made her coming here unknown to anybody! The one who came here was Demy!”
“Then, why is it that Princess had to come here?”
“That is….. because Marquis Isky is being suspected for rebellion”
“That’s probably a rumor this residence’s people spread. Didn’t the knights explain this before? The King can’t afford not to dispatch you to this residence. That’s why they spread the rumors”
“No way…!”
“The people here are too good. ‘n.o.body can talk about whatever happens here from now on’. They only employed young girls so that even if there are witnesses to these incidents and experiments, they can be dealt with by silencing them using the parasites they made with the experiments. … probably …. all the maids in the residence have been implanted with these so that they’d be free to move at any time”
“…..——”
Lady Demy covered her mouth in shock.
“No, to even go that far…”
Princess Rosé said, trembling, my theory probably having struck her feelings.
“Just who did and why would they want to manipulate my mind…?”
“I don’t have a conclusive thoughts as to why but I know who would. There is one like that, right? Someone who’s in a hurry to make your heart his own…”
SLAM!!
Then suddenly, the door was opened wide.
“STOP RIGHT THERE, YOU BRUTE!!”
Tris’ loud voice resounded.
—d.a.m.n it.
I was about to answer her but looks like I was one move too late.